novelraw Chapter 162 : Chapter 162
Chapter 162 : Chapter 162
162
Fortunately, Sihan was more than satisfied with just the Phantom Steed's Fantasy.
"This is enough for me to work with."
"I can provide as many Fantasies as you need. Our Academy has a few extras as well."
"Extras?! You have these things just lying around? Damn it, one of these could be locked away in a research lab and used to secure a hundred years' worth of funding!"
"Right now, in our Academy's bell tower......"
"Are you insane? Let us go at once. Forget demons and all that — there is nothing more to prepare."
We returned to the Academy, driven by Sihan's frenzied urging.
Giant-Block's Fantasy, Phantom Steed's Fantasy, the General Fantasy, Ocean Hall's Fantasy, and the Anti-Magic Fantasy.
A total of five Fantasies had been gathered for him.
"Wow, damn. With five of these, you could probably wipe out about half of humanity."
"Excuse me?"
What a horrifying thing to imagine.
Could it be that this so-called other world he claimed to come from was actually the Demon Realm?
Was he a demon?
When I looked at him with that kind of suspicion, Sihan returned a pitying gaze.
"You lot have it easy. Brains that have never seen Endgame. Blissfully ignorant of the trainwreck that is the Marvel movie series."
Since I could not understand a single word of it, it was presumably talk about his homeland.
In any case, he continued muttering incomprehensible things as he holed himself up in his lab.
I could only hope that his research might lead us to tracking down the Demon Summoner and resolving this entire crisis.
"Teacher!"
In the meantime, I had my own work to attend to.
***
"I did some research of my own since then, and did you know there are types of graduate school advisors?"
Lord Murray stared directly at me.
"Apparently, young graduate advisors are full of passion and tend to micromanage. They know so much and are so knowledgeable that they have no idea how clueless their students are."
"Ahaha, ha ha."
"And apparently, capable graduate advisors never stay at the Academy. They have too much outside work to properly teach."
"Ha ha, ha."
"So what am I to do? My advisor happens to be both young and capable."
"I deserve death for my sins."
"Now now, you must not die. Then I would lose my advisor, would I not? At least let me graduate first, then die."
"......When I say I deserve death for my sins, I do not literally mean I intend to die. It is a rhetorical expression meaning I am deeply sorry for having committed such a grave offense."
"I am aware. I, however, was not being rhetorical. You are familiar with a lord's authority over life and death, yes?"
Lord Murray burst into hearty laughter.
He was a jovial man.
......That was a joke, surely.
"It is no joke. Do you not think you have been away on outside business far too often?"
"This is all for the sake of world peace and demons and......"
"I am already aware that you are undertaking a mission of great importance. But let me be frank. Why should that concern me?"
He snorted dismissively.
Over the past month, Akarind Academy had successfully transformed into an Academy City, and his confidence had risen considerably as a result.
In that time, he had not touched a drop of alcohol and had continued exercising.
It was confidence with good reason.
"Besides, it seems there are people at this school whose lives hang in the balance depending on your movements."
He gestured with his chin toward the two people standing beside him.
Isadora — that is, the person who had once been Qantaii — and Dwayne Traivan.
They were people whose lives were threatened by the Empire's military and Triban's military, respectively.
"While everyone emptied out for the break, I brought in these two who were practically hiding at the school even while you were gone."
Lord Murray had been exercising with the two of them throughout the break.
Exercising in a group was more efficient and beneficial in several ways compared to exercising alone.
"......That was something I asked you to do."
The problem was that this had not been an act of voluntary goodwill on Lord Murray's part.
Because Avril had caused a massive uproar in the Empire, Isadora's position had become extremely precarious.
If the Empire decided to throw out all prior negotiations and take a hostile stance, it was obvious they would go after Isadora first, since she had been the subject of those negotiations.
Intelligence operatives under the Empire also carried out missions such as infiltration, abduction, and assassination.
Of course, assassinating Isadora at Akarind Academy — right under the watch of Berlis and the Firestorm Mercenary Guild — would not be easy.
But "not easy" did not mean impossible.
That was why I had asked the Lord to look after and protect Isadora.
Simply eliminating Isadora while she was alone would cause problems.
But killing Isadora under the protection of the Lord of Akarind Academy, right before his eyes — that would become a political problem.
Political problems were far more complex and difficult than ordinary problems.
Especially when the other party was none other than Akarind Academy.
'Checkmate.'
Being hostile toward a single individual named Cassian was one thing, but making enemies of every teacher and student at Akarind Academy was on an entirely different level.
That would be outright war.
The reason I had entrusted Dwayne was different.
As the saying went, even a rotten fish was still a fish. The Lord was a knight who had distinguished himself in service to the Belmein Kingdom.
I believed that if such a knight committed himself to physical training with Dwayne, it could greatly improve the boy's health.
And indeed, compared to before I had started paying attention to Akarind Academy, Dwayne had put on a fair amount of flesh and muscle.
In the past, Dwayne had been so gaunt that his bones jutted visibly through his skin, but now he merely looked a bit thin.
"Teacher, you are the one who ordered that brutal training?"
I was not entirely sure why Dwayne resented me for it.
I smiled bitterly and looked at the three of them.
"I admit I have been a lacking teacher. That is why, today, I intend to take responsibility for my shortcomings."
"Responsibility, you say. How? Have you found some groundbreaking teaching method that could reinstate me in the knightly order?"
"I cannot reinstate you."
At my words, Lord Murray's eyebrow twitched.
But I was sincere.
The reason I was teaching Lord Murray was because I wanted him to serve as the same kind of shield for all of Akarind Academy that he was currently providing for Isadora and Dwayne.
That was also why I had refused the new administrator the Belmein Kingdom had tried to send down.
"Instead, I will make the knightly order look up to you, my Lord."
It was not just the Lord.
I planned to teach Isadora so that she could gain complete freedom from the Empire.
And Dwayne as well — so that he could be liberated from the fear of the Kingdom of Triban.
"Very well. I understand your grand ambitions. But how exactly do you plan to accomplish that?"
"Please serve as a test subject for this training."
At the word "test," Lord Murray's eyebrow twitched once more.
It seemed my request displeased him, as the amplitude of his twitching brow was considerable.
"A test? Of what?"
"What I am about to conduct is less of a swordsmanship lesson and more...... something that has a high possibility of becoming something beyond that."
That thing when I fought the Phantom Steed.
Could I really call that swordsmanship?
I understood that it was not dangerous to people, but I was not sure whether it was safe to immediately teach it to students.
That was why I needed this test.
"Dwayne is a student. Isadora, despite appearances, is a student of Akarind Academy. And you, my Lord, are the representative of this great Academy City."
These three provided sufficient representation.
And there was another reason I had not shared with them.
These three were people whose names had vanished from the "future history" Rozalin had told me about.
I wanted to give such people the first opportunity.
"Hmm...... Very well. Let us try it."
Lord Murray did not deliberate long before nodding.
He was, after all, the man who had summoned me to the Lord's Castle even while drowning in alcohol, driven by his desire to return to being a knight.
There was no way he would let this chance pass.
"I-I will do it."
"I shall participate!"
The other two nodded without hesitation at the prospect of escaping their fears.
"So does this mean I will finally be able to use Aura?"
Lord Murray looked at me with eyes full of anticipation.
In that gaze, I could read a yearning and longing for Aura.
What to do.
"No. In fact, we will be staying away from Aura for the time being."
"What?"
The other two also stared at me with surprised expressions.
In the current landscape of swordsmen's battles, whether one had learned Aura was of paramount importance.
I knew that.
However.
"What I intend to test this time is what comes before that. The body itself and swordsmanship itself, before Aura is ever learned."
"What meaning is there in learning that?"
"You will become able to cut through Aura."
To be precise, it would allow one to transcend the limitations of Aura.
The existing form of Aura was the process of giving shape to Sword Intent — that is, the reason a person took up the sword and their values.
The straighter and firmer one's will, the stronger their Aura became.
But what if two equally strong wills clashed?
Then, from that point on, the one with superior swordsmanship would win.
And so, the body would adapt its movements to best express that Sword Intent.
But what if one transcended even that limit?
"Instead of Sword Intent controlling the body, the body will reshape Sword Intent."
Then, rather than the current form of Aura that merely cloaked a blade, an Aura optimized for one's own swordsmanship would take shape.
An Aura that blazed like flame, or crackled like lightning, or perhaps soared like a Griffon in flight.
"So I will refine your swordsmanship — make it more delicate, more perfect."
My heart was beating a little faster.
***
Lately, the King of Belmein's expression had been perpetually creased with worry.
It was because of Akarind Academy.
Starting last year, some teacher at that Academy had begun doing strange things.
One year of that, and suddenly Akarind Academy had become a place the Empire was enamored with, the Traivan Royal Family was excited about, and the Kingdom of Namress tearfully revered.
Taken at face value alone, none of this was bad for the Belmein Kingdom.
Talented individuals were flowing in from abroad, and tax revenue from the Akarind territory had increased.
With the Goldline Merchant Guild establishing itself there, they had also benefited from the trickle-down effect of logistics and distribution.
Above all, the Belmein Kingdom's standing in international diplomacy had risen.
Yet no matter how much it rose, they were still a vassal state of the Empire.
The Belmein Kingdom had only been spared invasion because its harsh terrain and abundance of monsters made conquest impractical — it was not a nation completely independent from the Empire.
On top of that, to the north, the Kingdom of Triban, with its formidable cavalry, was endlessly threatening them to hand over the Crown Prince.
The kingdom had been following a pro-Imperial line to guard against Triban, but it seemed that the teacher who had gone to the Empire this time had caused a major incident.
The Empire had suddenly turned cold.
When they tried to address that, the Kingdom of Namress abruptly intervened.
Not in a hostile direction, but a friendly one.
Claiming Akarind Academy was their benefactor, Namress had begun practically dumping their naval power and marine products at near-zero cost.
This was tantamount to voluntarily declaring themselves a tributary state.
International affairs were shifting dramatically, entirely beyond the hands of one kingdom's monarch.
The problem was that Akarind Academy had been treated as a place of exile within their own borders.
Murray Taylor, who had been ousted from the knightly order and sent down there, had — perhaps nursing old grudges ever since — refused the royal decree to return, claiming the massive undertaking of managing an Academy City was beyond the capacity of any replacement.
His justification was that as the person who had long overseen Akarind Academy and who had originally proposed the Academy City plan, he wanted to see it through to the end.
Now that Akarind Academy's influence had grown, there was no valid justification to refuse his justification.
"Why is there none? You simply send the transfer order and that is that."
"But what if Akarind Academy raises another fuss......"
"It is merely an academy at the end of the day. I am going in person, not some nobody — they will not dare say a word. No. Actually, I would welcome it if they did."
A middle-aged knight with a splendidly groomed mustache wore an ambitious smile.
He was Palmer Keila, the Knight Commander of the Belmein Kingdom.
"Dispatch me there, Your Majesty. I shall restore order and return."
The reason he could be so oblivious to reality and so brimming with confidence was, in truth, partly Akarind Academy's own doing.
While the rest of the world had been devastated by the appearance of demons, the Belmein Kingdom had suffered virtually no demon-related damage.
The moment any appeared, the teacher and students of Akarind had stepped in and dealt with them.
Because of this, the kingdom could not comprehend why other empires and kingdoms reacted the way they did.
What was so special about being skilled with a sword?
What was the big deal about exterminating some oversized monsters called demons?
They even operated a knightly order that periodically exterminated monsters.
And the person dispatched to Akarind had been a washed-up knight expelled from their own order, had he not?
Such delusions blinded them.
"I know the ousted Lord Murray well. He was my contemporary. The fact that he was expelled and I became Commander should be proof enough of my abilities, should it not?"
"Very well! I am counting on you!"
And so the King of Belmein, as if glimpsing a ray of hope, decided to dispatch Commander Palmer.
He had no way of knowing that what he saw was not hope, but despair.